Lesson #2: Coach for the Right Reasons - Lessons from a Youth Baseball Coach

It is imperative that every youth baseball coach starts coaching for the appropriate reasons. There are three primary goals every coach should have: 1) increase every player’s skill set so they are better players by the end of the season; 2) strive to make every player’s time with the team a fun experience; and 3) be fair in both positions played and innings played. If a coach at the youth level can accomplish these three things, the season was successful.

As I said in Lesson #1, it is not the skills a player starts the season with that count, it is the skills a player finishes with that are important. It is a coach’s duty to make each player better. I have run into many coaches that use their talented players to win ballgames, but don’t necessarily put effort into improving the skills of any of their players. As an example, if a baseball player has problems getting hits, some coaches will put that player at the end of the line-up and only have them bunt. So, instead of spending the extra practice time trying to make the player a better hitter, the coach will put the player up there to bunt and hope for a walk. In addition these coaches will also, often times, try to hide that player defensively. To put it in another way, they will try to position the player where they will not have to field a ball. This cheats the players and diminishes the sport. This sort of thing harkens back to the old days when coaches assumed players either “had it” or didn’t. Those that didn’t played the minimum and sat on the end of the bench. But with today’s coaching techniques we know that players, given the chance, can improve; they can learn to hit and field, given the proper instruction and the opportunity. And they ought to have that opportunity.

A lot of coaches start coaching youth baseball for two reasons: 1) for the ability to play their son or daughter for as many innings as they like at the positions they want and 2) to win baseball games. This is the wrong rationale. For some reason, there are a number of coaches at the youth level that only care about winning baseball games. Why? It might be that these coaches feel like failures if they lose and, in addition to that, most youth leagues will choose the coach with the best overall record to coach the all-star team for that level of play. So, it comes down to prestige; it is more prestigious to win ballgames than to teach baseball. And it then comes down to wisdom and experience. How big of a deal is it to be the country’s winningest youth baseball coach (woo woo!), in contrast with being a coach who truly watches out for all of his players and their personal development?

Thus, I am requesting that all coaches challenge the system. I had a very simple system. I coached with the purpose of teaching baseball during the regular season. I played my tournament games to win ballgames. But, even when attempting to win, I wanted players to get fair playing time. Why shouldn’t all the players on a team be able to participate in the challenge of play-off baseball?

I am also requesting that youth leagues to buck the system; leagues should make it more important to teach baseball than to win baseball games. I want to win as much as anyone. But there is a right way and a wrong way. Youth level coaches should not have winning as their top priority. Prestige is determined at the group level; leagues determine what is prestigious within their ranks. If youth baseball leagues started recognizing their coaches as teachers, then teaching baseball would become prestigious, and a new trend in youth coaching would begin.

The article "Lessons from a Youth Baseball Coach" contains many lessons - this is the second lesson. All of the lessons can be found at Baseball Armory – “The Baseball Blog”. Baseball Armory sponsors Baseball Armory – “The Baseball Blog”. Baseball Armory is an online store that contains quality Akadema softball and baseball gear. Akadema produces high quality baseball and softball equipment, including infield and outfield gloves, catcher’s mitts, metal and wood bats, cleats, turf shoes, batting gloves, sunglasses, apparel, equipment bags, glove care products, and miscellaneous baseball and softball accessories.